Execs Found Guilty 25 Years After Bhopal Disaster

More than a quarter-century after one of the worst industrial disasters in history, the verdicts are in. An Indian court has found 8 former executives at Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary guilty of causing death by negligence for their role in 1984's Bhopal disaster, CNN reports. A leak at the chemical plant killed 4,000 people instantly and 10,000 others in the following years.

The disaster has been blamed for serious illnesses among hundreds of thousands of survivors. The executives will face a maximum of 2 years in jail plus a fine if the guilty verdicts stand, although the appeals process is expected to take several more years. "If that's not the biggest joke, then I don't know what is," a Bhopal rights activist tells Reuters. "There's nothing to be happy about." (More India stories.)